The sport of basketball continues to be increasingly popular at all levels of play. Children start at a very early age to shoot baskets, and the best of them will ultimately play organized competitive basketball for many years and may even achieve the level of playing professional basketball. At all levels of play, one of the keys to success is the ability to make a high percentage of goals and improved shooting accuracy is important. Even gifted athletes have found that the only proven way to improve shooting accuracy is dedication and hard work. In other words, the only way to improve shooting accuracy is to practice and attain a level of shooting confidence that will enable the athlete to perform more successfully no matter at what level the athlete is competing. However there has been no way to simulate the game like distractive efforts of an opponent's hands-in-your-face guarding technique during individual practice sessions. Thus, a key element of shooting over the waving, outstreched hands of an opponent, as exists in a real game, has always been missing from individual practice.
There is a need for a practice or training aid, no matter at what level, elementary, high school, college or professional, that will enable the athlete to improve his or her shooting accuracy under the most realistic game conditions.
There is also a need for any practice or training apparatus which will improve shooting accuracy under the most realistic game conditions which is easy to use and which is inexpensive.